For Toyota, hydrogen-fueled cars are the most reasonable answer for future transportation needs. This technology produces electricity to drive a car with emissions consist only of water vapor. Although the current plug-in hybrid technology is considered the most feasible at the moment, Toyota is confident in the not too distant future, full hydrogen technology will also be feasible for mass production.
Sponsored
The only issue with full hydrogen technology today is the price. The cost to produce full hydrogen-fueled cars is still prohibitively expensive. In 2008 the cost was estimated to be around USD 1 million per car. But Toyota is predicting that in the near future the cost of manufacturing can be significantly lowered to one twentieth of the price by 2015.
How could the price be reduced as low as that within seven years?
To lower the price, Toyota tries innovation on many sides, starting from the material used as well as the construction process to produce fuel cell. Fuel cells are where the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen produce electrical energy and water. For example, the original tank fuel cells require platinum which is very expensive and difficult to obtain.
To overcome this Toyota developed numerous ways to reduce the use of such rare metals in fuel-cell. Toyota even attempted to simplify the design of the tank which in turn reduces the number of components and complexity of its construction.
In addition to that, other important change is the process of manufacture that dramatically accelerates the process of fuel tank production. Typical Toyota fuel tanks contain up to 70MPa or roughly 1.7 times more than the previous tank. Mileage for one tank of hydrogen can reach as high as 500km.
The most expensive part of the fuel cell technology is the fuel cell stack which is a collection of fuel cells and hydrogen tanks. By cutting the price of both materials, the effect is very significant. The process has droves down prices from being un-realistic towards ranges that make more sense to potential customers.
With all the innovation, the price of car equipped with fuel cell technology in 2015 is not expected to cost more than $ 50,000 or equivalent to a Lexus sedan.
Looking ahead, the next challenges that must be answered is the availability of hydrogen filling to enable normal usage just as gasoline today.